The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-10-19
ELECTRICITY IN MODERN WARFARE.
The Torpedo-BTiIitary Telegraph - Fir
ing Observation-Disclosures Uses.

The Torpedo-NTiIitary Telegraph - Fir
ing observation-disclosures Uses.
! New York SUM-
! The essay of Lieut.. B. A. Fiske, of the
! navy, read befor the Franklin institute,
! of the part played by electricity in war
fare, shows it to be already military
agent of high Importance, instead of
power to be developed only in the
future.
Probably few people appreciate the
fact that electrical torpedoes really date
back over forty years, to the time when
Col. Samuel Colt, in the presence of
President Tyler, Gen Scott, and many
congressman, blew up vessels five
miles away by the use of an electric
wire. Long after, nevertheless, both in
European wars and in our own civil
conflict, eombatants were content to
rely chiefly on the old mechanical mine,
which, when once fixed In a channel for
the defense of harbor, blows up i'm
partially friend and foe. Hereafter the
almost universal rule will be to plant
torpedoes that remain harmless until A
signal delivered through the electric
wire shows that the enemy is upon them,
which will instantly be responded to by
the return current from the firing bat
terry on shore. The harbor is then no
longer blocked to all friendly commerce
from the moment that torpedoes are
planted. On the other hand, electricity
may be employed also to detect the
presence of fixed torpedoes. In NOV
able tOrpedoes it exercises constant con-
troll over the weapon. directing it against
the enemy, and hence preventing him
from evading it, as he may evade non
electrical torpedoes.
The torpedo, however, though lust
now the most prominent military appli- |
cation of electricity, is only one of |
many The military telegraph was |
familiar in our civil war. where it had |
its origin; and now military telegraph |
corps, with their special apparatus for
laying wire at great speed, form a part
of all great armies The telephone sup
plements the telegraph, and both instru-
ments are used in artillery practice to
track hostile vessels so as to determine
exactly when TO fire on them, and also to
register the time of fight of pro;ectiles.
Since Lieut.. Fiske says that 1.-THE pre-
else instant of start to within a thou
sandth of a second" is recorded
for pro ectiles by electricity, the
comes up whether
some application of electricity
will not one day give more accurate in
dicatiOns in racing than stop watches.
whose recorded fifths of second are
sometimes looked on with doubt on mar
row questions Of breaking records.
Electricity now fires whole broad.
sides Of prodigious guns at the touch Of
button. thereby not only producing
hat absolutely simultaneous discharge,
which has hitherto not been known, but
also eliminating the element of change
n aim produced by even an instant's
oil of the ship during the slower
process of hand firing. Electricity also
an handle with ease heavy ordnance
n forts and on shipboard: though this !
q ust rather be ranked among its uses
hereafter to be developed.
Electricity examines the bores of guns
o ascertain their condition, and in the
'owerful form of the electr o-dynamo
earch light unveils in the arkest night
ecret movements alike on ship and
hore, Of besiegers and besieged, the
tealthy approach of the tOrpedo-boat,
n the movement of hostile column to
urprise a fort. AS a signal light it is
alpably useful, while it can even be
lade to confuse an enemy by throwing
pom him sudden alterations of blind
lg light and paralyzing darkness.
Launches have been driven by cleo
'icity, which will, doubtless, on ac-
punt of the steady improvement of
orage batteries, one day wholly re-
ace steam for this purpose. Electric
gifts for rifed muskets are now fur
shed for night firing; and combined
18th them are small lamps for illumirat-
g the target. Rubber bands fasten
lese ingenious devices to the marks
ans gun. There are also electric
aes, in which the soldier presses a
nall button, thereby, unless he is a ]
'ry sklllful marksman, getting better
m than when he pulls a trigger. |.
If, in addition to all these applica-
)ns, electricity should furnish a com 4
ct and not too heavy power for steer
g military balloons, its contributions >
the art of war will be still more -
markable